Sleep Tight!

I spent the last two Saturdays on a quest to replace the bed I've owned since the second Reagan administration. Mattress shopping is similar to car shopping, in that you do it infrequently enough for there to be a gross imbalance in knowledge between you and the salesperson. The potential for scams, or at least underhanded treatment of customers, is rife.

Enter Jordan's Furniture, a Boston-area mainstay closely identified with its pony-tailed former owners, brothers Barry and Elliott Tatelman. Their homespun, internally-produced advertisements and their corny slogans have been instrumental in creating a hugely successful business. But equally instrumental is Jordan's sales strategy of being upfront with customers and being genuinely interested in putting them in the best possible bed at the best possible value, whether or not they buy it at their store.

On my first trip to Jordan's the saleswoman patiently walked me around the showroom, having me try a bunch of different beds in a price range I identified up front. While I found one I initially liked, I decided I was remiss if I didn't comparison shop. To my complete surprise, the saleswoman didn't take offense at all. Instead, she told me to take note of the specifications of the bed, since the model names varied by store. She instructed me to expect salespeople who want to haggle over prices and told me not to let them know I had been to Jordan's until the end of the process.

My comparison store was Mattress Giant. Initially I did not see anybody in the store, but once I walked inside, I saw a shape roll off one of the beds in the back, tidy himself up, and come and greet me at the front of the store. He immediately guided me to the most expensive bed, explaining to me that I shouldn't worry about price until later. Once I finally settled on a bed (with minimal assistance besides, "How does that feel? Okay, now try this one.") he named the price, fully expecting me to balk. Then, he went through the whole routine of checking the binders to see what they were recently on sale for, then making a call to the warehouse to see if anything was overstocked and available for immediate sale at a discounted price (lo and behold, there was). Not willing to be a part of this marionette routine, I walked out.

I returned to Jordan's this past Saturday, spending about 90 minutes sampling pretty much every mattress under $1000 in the entire showroom. Once I found one I absolutely loved (and by loved, I mean couldn't stop hopping onto), I called a salesman over and asked a couple of questions. Even though I was a fish caught on the hook ready to be reeled in, he insisted on showing me other models, checking out my spinal alignment as I laid down on each one. I tried the others, but stuck by the bed I had fallen in love with. I paid the sticker price, which, according to my online research, was a very fair price for that type of bed, especially since it included free delivery.

Sometimes, when you make such a large purchase, you are struck by an immediate case of buyer's remorse. You feel like a sucker and you wonder how much cheaper you could have obtained the merchandise. At Jordan's, I was absolutely thrilled to plunk down over a grand on a bed, with a mattress pad and a frame. I felt like a valued customer and a fellow human being, not like some fattened goose, ripe for the picking. Jordan's is now owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, but smartly, Buffett has not changed a thing since the Tatelman regime. By treating me with respect and putting my happiness above their cash flow line item on their balance sheet, they've earned a customer for life.